


The Secret

by coolbyrne



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-17 21:37:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21550177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolbyrne/pseuds/coolbyrne
Summary: A shopping trip for Tobias leads to something more for Jack and Gibbs. SLIBBS
Relationships: Jethro Gibbs/Jacqueline "Jack" Sloane
Comments: 39
Kudos: 178





	The Secret

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little fun piece I hashed out with jenni3penny. Told her she needed to do more 'slice of life' Slibbs fics, gave this one to her as an example and ended up doing it myself! Talk about shooting myself in the foot! :)

It would probably surprise people to find out he actually liked Christmas. Loved the music as long as it was traditional, loved the tree as long as it was real, loved the food, especially if it was cookies. He wasn't getting any of that right now, and that's what brought out the Scrooge in him. The mall was everything wrong with Christmas and he couldn't think of anything he hated more.

_Waterboarding. That was pretty bad._

He conceded the point to his inner voice. Waterboarding was marginally worse than standing outside Victoria's Secret, waiting for Tobias to get whatever the hell he was getting. Not for the first time did he wonder if he should cave and get a new phone, partly for his failing eyesight but also to give himself something to do while he waited. He hated waiting. He turned to look through the window, hoping Fornell could feel his impatient stare, wherever the hell he was in the store.

….

Her list was almost done and all she wanted to do was curl up under a blanket near a fireplace and nurse a hot chocolate, preferably laced with something to take the edge off. She had everything but the fireplace waiting for her back home, and she was contemplating how to casually bring it all together with a certain grump who _did_ have a fireplace when she stopped dead in her tracks. For a second, she was almost convinced she had conjured up the man himself by mere thought, then shook her head at the silliness of it. It was 4 days from Christmas. Of course it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to see him in the mall, standing outside Victoria’s Secret. She mentally backtracked to the only part of that logic that even made sense, which was, at best, the ‘4 days from Christmas.’ But considering the man involved, even that made her check her watch to be sure. After verifying that it was indeed 4 days from Christmas, she literally retraced her steps until she came up right behind him.

“Well, hello, Cowboy.”

He had seen her pass in the window’s reflection and had a vain hope she hadn’t seen him. He nearly groaned when he discovered it wouldn’t be that easy. “Jack,” he said, anticipating the teasing that was to come. He wasn’t entirely wrong.

“Peach is a tricky colour to pull off,” she warned with a grin. “Don’t let the mannequin fool you.”

“Not lookin’ for me.”

She pressed into his shoulder with hers. “I would hope not. Though the blue one would bring out the colour of your eyes.” Those eyes narrowed at her teasing but it only made her laugh. “So,” she continued, pretending to be oblivious to his glare, “if it’s not for you, then… it’s for Tobias.”

He was used to her drawing uncannily accurate conclusions about people, but even that guess took him by surprise. “How’d you know?”

“Because he asked me if I would help him pick out something for his ‘new lady friend’. I gave him the same look I gave him when he suggested strip poker.”

“We all gave him that look. Twice.”

Jack grinned. “I told him to ask Grace. You can imagine how that went.” The corner of his mouth quirked up and she nodded. “Exactly. I only heard it over the phone or I would’ve taken pictures.” They shared a quiet laugh at the image, then she asked, “So how did he rope you into it? And why aren’t you in the store? Those sales girls would be all over a silver fox like you.”

He willed the heat to not touch his cheeks but he couldn’t stop it from painting the tips of his ears red. What was it about her that bulldozed past his confidence and made him itch? He’d been married 4 times, for god’s sake. Engaged a fifth. Slept with women in between and since. But one comment about his appeal to women and he was a step away from an ‘Aw, shucks’. It didn’t help that she was more than aware, and didn’t bother trying to hide it.

“That smirk’s gonna get you in trouble one day, Sloane.”

“So I’ve been told.” She shrugged away the potential consequences. Glancing down at his bag, she ‘ahhh’d’ at the discovery. “He’s bribed you with whiskey.”

“Yep.”

“Good whiskey, too. The kind I was thinking of putting into some hot cocoa while I get cozy under a blanket in front of a fireplace.”

“You don’t have a fireplace.”

“How do you know?”

“Because you’re always at my place. Camped in front of the fire.”

“Mmmm,” she conceded with a pout. 

“You got marshmallows?”

“Of course.”

He smiled at her indignation. “Door’s open if you wanna come over. If Fornell ever gets the hell out of there.”

A familiar voice approached them from the side. “You rang? Hey, Jack.”

“Hey, Tobias.” She kissed his cheek and winked. “So you got someone to tag along after all.”

He let out a ‘pffft’. “Tag along? This guy’s practically a drag along. Imagine a man not wanting to step into Victoria’s Secret? Makes no sense. Probably why he hasn’t gotten laid in a decade.” He chuckled at Gibbs’ clenched jaw. “You wanna see what I bought, Jack?”

Immediately holding up her hand, Jack replied, “No, thank you. I’m well acquainted with Ms. Victoria and her secrets.” 

Gibbs tried to cover his interest, but Tobias had no such qualms. “Do tell.”

“Fornell-” Gibbs warned.

Jack waved away away the concern. “Please. Just because I haven’t gotten laid in-” The comfort she felt with both men had suddenly come back to bite her in the ass. “A while,” she finished, “doesn’t mean a woman doesn’t want to feel sexy. I’ll just shut up now.”

Seemed like she wasn’t the only one whose mouth got ahead of their brain, because Gibbs said, “Pretty sure you don’t need lingerie to do that.” His unexpected frankness was rewarded by the blush that had jumped from him to her and it didn’t go unmissed by Tobias.

“You know,” he said, “Christmas _is_ a time for miracles.” When they stared at him, he shrugged the water off his back. “I’m just sayin’. You scratch his back, he’ll take care of your itch.”

“Oh my God.”

“Fornell.”

They both spoke at the same time, and their indignation had the same effect on him as their stares. “Just sayin’,” he repeated.

“You’re gonna ‘just say’ yourself into a hospital bed,” Gibbs warned.

“C’mon. You’re telling me you wouldn’t sleep with Jack if you had the chance?”

“I’m right here!” She punched Tobias in the shoulder. As he reached up to rub the hurt away, she dared, “Besides, how do you know he hasn’t already slept with me?”

Fornell’s snort covered Gibbs’ cough. “Yeah, sure. I was talking about him sleeping with you, which I could see. The other way around? Not so much.” He dodged another punch. “Besides, you just said you hadn’t gotten-”

“Maybe I didn’t want to kiss and tell.” She wasn’t sure how far she was willing to take the charade, but she was emboldened when Gibbs stepped closer and didn’t pull back when her finger hooked his pinkie. 

“Yeah, okay,” Tobias said again, though this time his voice lacked the same confidence. “Are you messin’ with me? Because if you’re not messin’ with me, I owe Grace a hundred bucks.”

The fact that their friends had secret bets on their sex lives made Gibbs’ hand flex but she smoothed it out with her thumb and her reply. “You two are like old women. In fact, you’re worse. Anyway, I’ve got to go. Still have 3 people left on my shopping list.” Daringly, she went up on tiptoes and dropped a kiss on Gibbs’ lips. “See you later?” She wasn’t sure who was surprised more- she or Tobias -when Gibbs slipped his around her waist and pulled her in for a second, decidedly less chaste kiss. She hummed her pleasure against his mouth and whispered just loud enough for him to hear, “Oh Santa, I’ve been _so_ good this year.” She felt his smile under her lips and the heat of him through his jacket.

“I did _not_ need to see that.”

Gibbs spoke but didn’t break eye contact with her. “Then ya shouldnt’ve looked, Tobias.”

“Let’s go before you get arrested,” he said. “And apparently I gotta hit up a bank machine.”

As he walked away, Jack began to pull back but Gibbs wasn’t quite yet ready to give up the closeness. Sliding his lips to her ear, he whispered, “I think you could pull off peach.”

Her soft laugh tickled against his cheek, and with one hand, she reached up to her collar and tugged back the coat and sweater, revealing a strip of lace. “I know.” She used his rare moment of astonishment to drop three short kisses from his jaw to his lips. “You should go; Tobias is about to burst into flames.”

With apparent reluctance, he stepped back and his blue eyes took in so much of her, it made her shiver. Pleased with her reaction, he said, “Don’t forget the marshmallows.”

…..

-end


End file.
